VI OPINIONS OF THE PRESS. 



death agony, for my shot had entered the neck and gone downwards into 

 his chest. I stepped on one side and gave him my second barrel behind the 

 ear, when dark blood rushed from his nostrils, a slight tremor pT.ssed over 

 all his limbs, and all was still. The man-eater was dead, and his victims 

 avenged," 



These personal encounters with wild animals are reaUy the characteristic 

 feature of the volume, and the reader at last takes it as a matter of course 

 that the narrator should " suddenly come face to face upon an immense 

 tiger; " or, after firing at one from an ambuscade dug in the ground, should 

 see the beast leap clean over his head and fall crashing into the bushes 

 behind him. We extract two specimens of hair -breadth escapes such as 

 Van Amburgh might have envied. The first was a rencontre with " a huge 

 female bear," rushing down a nullah ; — 



" I was directly in her path, and, with a roar, she made right at me ; I 

 let drive at her head with my only barrel that had not been discharged, but 

 it failed to stop her, and she had knocked me down and was on me in the 

 t-s\ankling of an eye. 



" The slope of the hiU was steep, and we both of us rolled over and 

 over several times. I was almost breathless, when Googooloo rushed on 

 her with his billhook and endeavoured to attract her attention. Luckuy 

 she could not bite at all, as my shot had smashed her snout and lower jaw 

 to pieces ; but she kept me locked in her embrace, and squeezed me more 

 roughly than affectionately. 



" My head was weU protected with a bison-skin cap ; and getting a tight 

 grasp of her fur on each side, with my arms underneath hers, so that she 

 could not do me much injury with her claws, I regularly wrestled with her 

 for some time ; and, although I brought my science to play, and threw her 

 on her back several times ' by giving her the leg,' she never let go her hug, 

 and I was almost suffocated with the quantity of blood and froth that came 

 from her wound and covered my face, beard, and chest. 



" Googooloo made frantic hits at her from time to time with his billhook 



(the only weapon he had, having lent D his knife), but I ordered him to 



desist, as his blows did not appear to do the bear much harm, and I was 

 afraid of catching one. At last Bruin appeared to be getting weaker, and I 

 saw her wounds and loss of blood were telling ; and after a little trouble I 

 managed to draw my knife, and drove it up to the hilt in her body under 

 the armpits. She gave me an ugly hug, and fell over on her side, pulling 

 me with her. It was her last effort, and I picked myself up quite out of 

 puff, but not much injured, having only received a slight claw on the loins 

 and another rather more severe on the instep. I drew my pistol, which I 

 could not manage to get at before, to give her a settler, but it was not re- 

 quired — the game was over, my antagonist was dead." 



The other was in a similar situation, but the antagonist was an elephant 

 which was struck by a " shot four inches too low. It failed to stop him, 

 and before I could get out of the way, the huge brute was on me ; I saw 

 something dark pass over me, felt a severe blow, and found myself whizzing 

 through the air; then all was oblivion." While the author was lying 



